January 04, 2017

John Carter...

So these are all the books I'm trying to read in a row. But the titles here are a bit misleading. What I have are7 books. All but Llana of Gathol. I think that may have been incorporated into 'The Master Minds Of Mars' because I remember Thuvia's story being all her own, plus her heroes.

To do a decent "review" it will have to be book by book. Also, since I think a few other images display what is in the book better, I will post a different 'cover' for each book I talk about. At least. What I think I can say at this point, in this post, is that not all the stories are about John Carter. In fact, only the first three are really about him, where he is the main player.

I will have to check to make sure what "Llana of Gathol" is about since I can't recall, but Thuvia is the woman his son wins the hand of and 'The Chessmen of Mars" that I just started is, as far as I can tell, is about John's daughter and who she ends up with. I can't even guess what the other two books are about. Really, the things that are in the proceeding books only give me a clue as to what overall is going on in the last two. And that would be war. They were a war planet when Carter got there. He gladly added to bloodshed when needed, and in the one about his son, they were itching to start another one and ... failed? Yes, they did fail, but that was the book that ended oddly.

As for The Chessmen of Mars. I'm sure there is a battle or two in there and the last two have fighting words in title. That is just about the only thing you are guaranteed. A fight.

Here is the cover of what I got and the summary that came with it. I just read it and thought it was worth posting. :)

When John Carter goes to sleep in a mysterious cave in the Arizona dessert, he wakes up on the planet Mars. There he meets the fifteen foot tall, four armed, green men of mars, with horse-like dragons, and watch dogs like oversized frogs with ten legs. His adventures continue as he battles great white apes, fights plant men, defies the Goddess of Death, and braves the frozen wastes of Polar Mars. In other adventures, the Prince of Helium encounters a race of telepathic warriors, the Princess of Helium confronts the headless men of Mars, Captain Ulysses Paxton learns the secret of human immortality, and Tan Hadron's idealized notion of love is tested as he fights off gigantic spiders and cannibals.

Edgar Rice Burroughs vision of Mars was loosely inspired by astronomical speculation of the time, especially that of Percival Lowell, who saw the red planet as a formerly Earth-like world now becoming less hospitable to life due to its advanced age. Burroughs predicted the invention of homing devices, radar, sonar, autopilot, collision detection, television, teletype, genetic cloning, living organ transplants, antigravity propulsion, and many other concepts that were well ahead of his time.

The books in the Barsoom series were an early inspiration to many, including science fiction authors Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury, they influenced renowned scientist Carl Sagan in his quest for extraterrestrial life, and were instrumental in the making of James Cameron's Avatar, and George Lucas' Star Wars. This edition includes 45 illustrations.

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I just realize that it says Barsoom Series and more than the omission of "Llana of Gathol" is different between the pic at the top of this post and what I'm actually reading. Another reason for me to post my own covers for each book I'm going to talk about.